Potential energy surface and second virial coefficient of methane-water from ab initio calculations

Six-dimensional intermolecular potential energy surfaces (PESs) for the interaction of CH4 with H2O are presented, obtained from ab initio calculations using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) at two different levels of intramonomer correlation and the supermolecular approach at three different levels of electron correlation. Both CH4 and H2O are assumed to be rigid molecules with interatomic distances and angles fixed at the average values in the ground-state vibration. A physically motivated analytical expression for each PES has been developed as a sum of site-site functions. The PES of the CH4-H2O dimer has only two symmetry-distinct minima. From the SAPT calculations, the global minimum has an energy of -1.03 kcal/mol at a geometry where H2O is the proton donor, HO-H...CH4, with the O-H-C angle of 165 degrees, while the secondary minimum, with an energy of -0.72 kcal/mol, has CH4 in the role of the proton donor (H3C-H...OH2). We estimated the complete basis set limit of the SAPT interaction energy at the global minimum to be -1.06 kcal/mol. The classical cross second virial coefficient B12(T) has been calculated for the temperature range 298-653 K. Our best results agree well with some experiments, allowing an evaluation of the quality of experimental results.     

Ab initio and analytic intermolecular potentials for Ar-CH(3)OH

Ab initio calculations at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory were used to characterize the Ar-CH(3)OH intermolecular potential energy surface (PES). Potential energy curves were calculated for four different Ar + CH(3)OH orientations and used to derive an analytic function for the intermolecular PES. A sum of Ar-C, Ar-O, Ar-H(C), and Ar-H(O) two-body potentials gives an excellent fit to these potential energy curves up to 100 kcal mol(-1), and adding an additional r(-n) term to the Buckingham two-body potential results in only a minor improvement in the fit. Three Ar-CH(3)OH van der Waals minima were found from the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ//MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations. The structure of the global minimum is in overall good agreement with experiment (X.-C. Tan, L. Sun and R. L. Kuczkowski, J. Mol. Spectrosc., 1995, 171, 248). It is T-shaped with the hydroxyl H-atom syn with respect to Ar. Extrapolated to the complete basis set (CBS) limit, the global minimum has a well depth of 0.72 kcal mol(-1) with basis set superposition error (BSSE) correction. The aug-cc-pVTZ basis set gives a well depth only 0.10 kcal mol(-1) smaller than this value. The well depths of the other two minima are within 0.16 kcal mol(-1) of the global minimum. The analytic Ar-CH(3)OH intermolecular potential also identifies these three minima as the only van der Waals minima and the structures predicted by the analytic potential are similar to the ab initio structures. The analytic potential identifies the same global minimum and the predicted well depths for the minima are within 0.05 kcal mol(-1) of the ab initio values. Combining this Ar-CH(3)OH intermolecular potential with a potential for a OH-terminated alkylthiolate self-assembled monolayer surface (i.e., HO-SAM) provides a potential to model Ar + HO-SAM collisions.     

The intricacies of the stacking interaction in a pyrrole–pyrrole system

Extensive calculations of potential energy surfaces for parallel-displaced configurations of pyrrole–pyrrole systems have been carried out by the use of a dispersion-corrected density functional. System geometries associated with the energy minima have been found. The minimum interaction energy has been calculated as ?5.38 kcal/mol. However, bonding boundaries appeared to be relatively broad, and stacking interactions can be binding even for ring centroid distances larger than 6 Å. Though the contribution of the correlation energy to intermolecular interaction in pyrrole dimers appeared to be relatively small (around 1.6 smaller than it is in a benzene–benzene system), this system’s minimum interaction energy is lower than those calculated for benzene–benzene, benzene–pyridine and even pyridine–pyridine configurations. The calculation of the charges and energy decomposition analysis revealed that the specific charge distribution in a pyrrole molecule and its relatively high polarization are the significant source of the intermolecular interaction in pyrrole dimer systems.     

The C4H7+ cation. A theoretical investigation

The potential energy surface of the C4H7+ cation has been investigated with ab initio quantum chemical theory. Extended basis set calculations, including electronic correlation, show that cyclobutyl and cyclopropylcarbinyl cation are equally stable isomers. The saddle point connecting these isomers lies 0.6 kcal/mol above the minima. The global C4H7+ minimum corresponds to the 1-methylallyl cation, which is 9.0 kcal/mol more stable than the cyclobutyl and the cyclopropylcarbinyl cation and 9.5 kcal/mol below the 2-methylallyl cation. These results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.     

Magnitude and orientation dependence of intermolecular interaction of perfluoropropane dimer studied by high-level ab initio calculations: comparison with propane dimer

Intermolecular interaction energies of 12 orientations of C(3)F(8) dimers were calculated with electron correlation correction by the second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation method. The antiparallel C(2h) dimer has the largest interaction energy (-1.45 kcal/mol). Electron correlation correction increases the attraction considerably. Electrostatic energy is not large. Dispersion is mainly responsible for the attraction. Orientation dependence of the interaction energy of the C(3)F(8) dimer is substantially smaller than that of the C(3)H(8) dimer. The calculated interaction energy of the C(3)F(8) dimer at the potential minimum is 78% of that of the C(3)H(8) dimer (-1.85 kcal/mol), whereas the interaction energies of the CF(4) and C(2)F(6) dimers are larger than those of the CH(4) and C(2)H(6) dimers. The intermolecular separation in the C(3)F(8) dimer at the potential minimum is substantially larger than that in the C(3)H(8) dimer. The larger intermolecular separation due to the steric repulsion between fluorine atoms is the cause of the smaller interaction energy of the C(3)F(8) dimer at the potential minimum. The calculated intermolecular interaction energy potentials of the C(3)F(8) dimers using an all atom model OPLS-AA (OPLS all atom model) force field and a united atom model force field were compared with the ab initio calculations. Although the two force fields well reproduces the experimental vapor and liquid properties of perfluoroalkenes, the comparison shows that the united atom model underestimates the potential depth and orientation dependence of the interaction energy. The potentials obtained by the OPLS-AA force field are close to those obtained by the ab initio calculations.     

Amide–π interactions between formamide and benzene

High‐level ab initio calculations have been carried out using a formamide–benzene model system to evaluate amide–π interactions. The interaction energies were estimated as a sum of the CCSD(T) correlation contribution and the HF energy at the complete basis set limit, for the geometries of the model structures at the energy minimum obtained by potential energy surface (PES) scans. NH/π geometry in a face‐on configuration was found to be the most attractive among the various geometries considered, with interaction energy of ?3.75 kcal/mol. An interaction energy of ?2.08 kcal/mol was calculated for the stacked N/Center type geometry, where the nitrogen atom of formamide points directly toward the center of the aromatic ring. The weakest C?O/π geometry, where a carbonyl oxygen atom points toward the plane of the aromatic ring, was found to have energy minimum at an intermolecular distance of 3.67 Å from the PES, with a repulsive interaction energy less than 1 kcal/mol. However, if there are simultaneous attractive interactions with other parts of the molecule besides the amide group, the weak repulsion could be easily overcome, to give a C?O/π geometry interaction. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2009     

Ab initio study of the structures and stabilities of the dimer of ethyl cation, (C(2)H(+)(5))(2) and related C(4)H(10)(2+) isomers.

Ab initio calculations at the MP4(SDTQ)/6-311G//MP2/6-31G level were performed to study the structures and stabilities of the dimer of ethyl cation, (C(2)H(+)(5))(2), and related C(4)H(10)(2+) isomers. Two doubly hydrogen bridged diborane type trans 1 and cis 2 isomers were located as minima. The trans isomer was found to be more favorable than cis isomer by only 0.6 kcal/mol. Several other minima for C(4)H(10)(2+) were also located. However, the global energy minimum corresponds to C-H (C(4) position) protonated 2-butyl cation 10. Structure 10 was computed to be substantially more stable than 1 by 31.7 kcal/mol. The structure 10 was found to be lower in energy than 2-butyl cation 13 by 34.4 kcal/mol.     

An accurate analytic representation of the water pair potential

The ab initio water dimer interaction energies obtained from coupled cluster calculations and used in the CC-pol water pair potential (Bukowski et al., Science, 2007, 315, 1249) have been refitted to a site-site form containing eight symmetry-independent sites in each monomer and denoted as CC-pol-8s. Initially, the site-site functions were assumed in a B-spline form, which allowed a precise optimization of the positions of the sites. Next, these functions were assumed in the standard exponential plus inverse powers form. The root mean square error of the CC-pol-8s fit with respect to the 2510 ab initio points is 0.10 kcal mol(-1), compared to 0.42 kcal mol(-1) of the CC-pol fit (0.010 kcal mol(-1) compared to 0.089 kcal mol(-1) for points with negative interaction energies). The energies of the stationary points in the CC-pol-8s potential are considerably more accurate than in the case of CC-pol. The water dimer vibration-rotation-tunneling spectrum predicted by the CC-pol-8s potential agrees substantially and systematically better with experiment than the already very accurate spectrum predicted by CC-pol, while specific features that could not be accurately predicted previously now agree very well with experiment. This shows that the uncertainties of the fit were the largest source of error in the previous predictions and that the present potential sets a new standard of accuracy in investigations of the water dimer.     

An ab initio study of the photochemical decomposition of 3, 3-dimethyldiazirine

Photochemical decomposition of 3,3-dimethyldiazirine (DMD) has been computationally investigated by using high-level ab initio calculations in conjunction with the 6-31G and cc-pvdz basis sets. The geometries of minima and transition states, as well as conical intersection points in the seam of crossing of two surfaces, have been optimized with the complete active space self-consistent field (CAS-SCF) method, and their energies, recalculated with second-order multireference perturbation (CAS/MP2) theory. The reaction path starting at the excited n-pi state of DMD is predicted to occur via a nonadiabatic mechanism, giving carbene and molecular dinitrogen (both in their singlet ground states) as the main products; the computed barrier height (1.0 kcal mol(-)(1)) agrees well with the experimental estimate of the activation energy in the singlet excited state (0.0-1.5 kcal mol(-)(1)). Ground state of dimethylcarbene is the only species where a 1,2-hydrogen shift takes place, being the only source of propene. The calculated potential energy barrier height for dimethylcarbene to propene isomerization (2.6 kcal mol(-)(1)) agrees well with the observed activation energy (2.56 kcal mol(-)(1)). No evidence for rearrangement in the first singlet excited state of DMD has been found; such a process would lead to a higher activation energy than the observed one. Consequently, 1,2-hydrogen migration concurrent with N(2) extrusion in the excited state has been ruled out.     

Toward the infrared spectroscopic observation of SiH5: the silanium ion

Ab initio quantum mechanical methods, including the self-consistent field, single and double excitation configuration interaction, and single and double excitation coupled cluster, have been applied to six stationary points on the SiH⁺₅ potential energy hypersurface. Equilibrium geometries were determined using analytic energy first derivative techniques. Relative energies of stationary points have been obtained. Harmonic vibrational frequencies of the global minimum were obtained at all levels of theory. Basis sets used include double-zeta plus polarization and triple-zeta plus double polarization. SiH⁺₅ should be regarded as involving weakly bound H₂ and SiH⁺₃ subunits, with a dissociation energy of only about 10 kcal/mol. Pseudorotation was found to be unfavorable in the SiH⁺₅ ion.     

Nitrous oxide dimer: a new potential energy surface and rovibrational spectrum of the nonpolar isomer

The spectrum of nitrous oxide dimer was investigated by constructing new potential energy surfaces using coupled-cluster theory and solving the rovibrational Schro?dinger equation with a Lanczos algorithm. Two four-dimensional (rigid monomer) global ab initio potential energy surfaces (PESs) were made using an interpolating moving least-squares (IMLS) fitting procedure specialized to describe the interaction of two linear fragments. The first exploratory fit was made from 1646 CCSD(T)/3ZaP energies. Isomeric minima and connecting transition structures were located on the fitted surface, and the energies of those geometries were benchmarked using complete basis set (CBS) extrapolations, counterpoise (CP) corrections, and explicitly correlated (F12b) methods. At the geometries tested, the explicitly correlated F12b method produced energies in close agreement with the estimated CBS limit. A second fit to 1757 data at the CCSD(T)-F12b/VTZ-F12 level was constructed with an estimated fitting error of less than 1.5?cm(-1). The second surface has a global nonpolar O-in minimum, two T-shaped N-in minima, and two polar minima. Barriers between these minima are small and some wave functions have amplitudes in several wells. Low-lying rovibrational wave functions and energy levels up to about 150?cm(-1) were computed on the F12b PES using a discrete variable representation/finite basis representation method. Calculated rotational constants and intermolecular frequencies are in very close agreement with experiment.     

Pi-pi interaction in pyridine

pi-pi Interaction in pyridine dimer and trimer has been investigated in different geometries and orientations at the ab initio (HF, MP2) and DFT (B3LYP) levels of theory using various basis sets (6-31G, 6-31G, 6-311++G) and corrected for basis set superposition error (BSSE). While the HF and DFT calculations show the pyridine dimer and the trimer to be unstable with respect to the monomer, the MP2 calculations show them to be clearly stable, thus emphasizing the need to include electron correlation while determining stacking interaction in such systems. The calculated MP2/6-311++G binding energy (100% BSSE corrected) of the parallel-sandwich, antiparallel-sandwich, parallel-displaced, antiparallel-displaced, T-up and T-down geometries for pyridine dimer are 1.53, 3.05, 2.39, 3.97, 1.91, 1.47 kcal/mol, respectively. The results show the antiparallel-displaced geometry to be the most stable. The binding energies for the trimer in parallel-sandwich, antiparallel-sandwich, and antiparallel-displaced geometry are found to be 3.18, 6.14, and 8.04 kcal/mol, respectively.     

Intermolecular potential energy surface of the N2-CO dimer: ab initio investigation and analytical representation

In this work, for the first time, an analytical four-dimensional representation for the intermolecular potential of the N(2)-CO dimer is constructed from ab initio calculations. The most stable structure of dimer is found to be a distorted T-shape conformation with CO forming the top and N(2) the leg of T. Important structures of the dimer are characterized, and surprisingly, it is found that in contrast with general assumptions, the potential energy surface of the N(2)-CO dimer has a single symmetry unique minimum. The energy profile of a minimum energy path that connects two T-shaped saddle points to the minimum structure is derived. Important structures are characterized along this path to represent the concerted internal rotation of monomers within the complex. The second virial coefficient is calculated from the fitted PES, and reasonable agreement is found with recent experimental results.     

Intermolecular potential energy surface and spectra of He-HCl with generalization to other rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes

A two-dimensional (rigid monomer) intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) of the He-HCl complex has been obtained from ab initio calculations utilizing the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) and an spdfg basis set including midbond functions. The bond length in HCl was chosen to be equal to the expectation value in the ground vibrational state of isolated HCl. The rigid-monomer potential should be a very good approximation to the complete (three-dimensional) potential for H-Cl distances corresponding to the lowest vibrational levels of the monomer since the He-HCl interaction energy was found to be only weakly dependent on the HCl bond length in this region, at least as compared to systems such as Ar-HF. The calculated points were fitted using an analytic function with ab initio computed asymptotic coefficients. As expected, the complex is loosely bound, with the dispersion energy providing the majority of the attraction. Our SAPT PES agrees with the semiempirical PES of Willey et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 96, 898 (1992)], in finding that, atypically for rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes including the lighter halide atoms, the global minimum is on the Cl side (with intermonomer separation 3.35 A and depth of 32.8 cm(-1)), rather than on the H side, where there is only a local minimum (3.85 A, 30.8 cm(-1)). The ordering of the minima was confirmed by single-point calculations in larger basis sets and complete basis set extrapolations, and also using higher levels of theory. We show that the opposite findings in the recent calculations of Zhang and Shi [J. Mol. Struct: THEOCHEM 589, 89 (2002)] are due to the lack of midbond functions in their basis set. Despite the closeness in depth of the two linear minima, the existence of a relatively high barrier between them invalidates the assumption of isotropy, a feature of some literature potentials. The trends concerning the locations of minima within the family of rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes are rationalized in terms of the physical components of the intermolecular forces and related to monomer properties. The accuracy of the SAPT PES was tested by performing calculations of rovibrational levels. The transition frequencies obtained were found to be in excellent agreement (to within 0.02 cm(-1)) with the measurements of Lovejoy and Nesbitt [J. Chem. Phys. 93, 5387 (1990)]. The SAPT PES predicts a dissociation energy for the complex of 7.74 cm(-1) which is probably more accurate than the experimental value of 10.1+/-1.2 cm(-1). Our analysis of the ground-state rovibrational wave function shows that the He-HCl configuration is favored over the He-ClH configuration despite the ordering of minima. This is due to the greater volume of the well in the former case. We have also determined positions and widths of three low-lying resonance states through scattering calculations. These predictions are expected to be more accurate than values derived from experiment.     

Ab initio-based global double many-body expansion potential energy surface for the first 2A" electronic state of NO2

An ab initio-based global double many-body expansion potential energy surface is reported for the first electronic state of the NO(2)((2)A") manifold. Up to 1700 ab initio energies have been employed to map the full configuration space of the title molecule, including stationary points and asymptotic channels. The calculated grid energies have been scaled to account for the incompleteness of the basis set and truncation of the MRCI expansion and fitted analytically with a total root-mean-squared-deviation smaller than 1.0 kcal mol(-1). The lowest point of the potential energy surface corresponds to the (2)B(1) linear minimum, which is separated from the C(s) distorted minimum by a C(2v) barrier of ≈9.7 kcal mol(-1). As usual, the proposed form includes a realistic representation of long-range interactions. Preliminary work indicates its reliability for reaction dynamics.     

A theoretical study of the rotational isomers of nitrosomethanol by semiempirical (AM1) and ab initio methods

The conformational potential energy surface as a function of the two internal torsion angles in C-nitrosomethanol has been obtained using the semiempirical AM1 method. Optimized geometries are reported for the local minima on this surface and also for the corresponding points on the HF/6-31G, 6-31G*, and 6-31G** surfaces. All methods predict cis and trans minima which occur in degenerate pairs, each pair being connected by a transition state of C_s symmetry. The AM1 structures are found to compare well with the corresponding ab initio structures. Ab initio HF/6-31G and HF/6-31G* harmonic vibrational frequencies are reported for the cis and trans forms of nitrosomethanol. When scaled appropriately the calculated frequencies are found to compare well with experimental frequencies. The ab initio calculations predict the energy barrier for cis → trans isomerization to be between 5.8 and 6.5 kcal/mol with the trans → cis isomerization barrier lying between 2.3 and 6.5 kcal/mol. The corresponding AM1 energy barriers are around 1 kcal/mol lower in energy. The ab initio calculations predict the barrier to conversion between the two cis rotamers to be very small with the AM1 value being around 1 kcal/mol. Both AM1 and ab initio calculations predict interconversion between trans rotamers to require between 1.2 and 1.4 kcal/mol.     

Stacking of the mutagenic DNA base analog 5-bromouracil

The potential energy surface of the stacked 5-bromouracil/uracil (BrU/U) dimer has been investigated in the gas phase and in solution (water and 1,4-dioxane), modeled by a continuum solvent using the polarizable continuum model. Minima and transition states were optimized using DFT (the M06-2X density functional and the 6-31+G(d) basis set). Six stacked gas-phase BrU/U minima were located: four in the face-to-back orientation and two face-to-face. The global minimum in the gas phase is a face-to-face structure with a twist angle of 60° and a zero-point energy-corrected interaction energy of ?10.7 kcal/mol. The BrU/U potential energy surface is geometrically and energetically similar to that of U/U (Hunter and Van Mourik in J Comput Chem 33:2161, 2012). Energy calculations were also performed on experimental geometries of stacked dimers (47 containing BrU stacking with either adenine, cytosine, guanine or thymine and 51 containing thymine also stacking with one of those four bases) taken from DNA structures in the Protein Data Bank. Single-point interaction energies were computed at different levels of theory including MP2, CCSD(T) and DFT using the mPW2PLYP-D double-hybrid functional augmented with an empirical dispersion term, using basis sets ranging from aug-cc-pVDZ to aug-cc-pVQZ. No strong evidence was found for the suggestion that the mutagenicity of BrU is due to enhanced stacking of BrU compared to the corresponding stacked dimers involving thymine.     

Ab initio study of the hydration of carbon dioxide: Additional comments based on refined calculations

Ab initio calculations on the formation of carbonic acid from the hydration of carbon dioxide with water dimer are re-examined. Fully optimized geometries of the three stationary points (minima and transition state) with the 3-21G basis set are reported. They possess non-planar structures. The inclusion of polarization (with the 6-31G* basis) and electron correlation (via Møller-Plesset perturbation theory to second through to fourth-order using the 6-31G basis) tends to enlarge the energy barrier (35–40 kcal mol⁻¹) for the double hydrogen transfer. This suggests that the neutral hydrolysis of CO₂ could require more water molecules (an oligomer) in an autocatalytic process rather than a dimer.